After foraying into the mining sector a couple of years ago, Tata International is now entering global trading in agricultural products through subsidiary Tata Africa Holdings.
Talking exclusively to FE, Tata International chairman B Muthuraman said, ?We are at the starting point ? we just shipped pulses from Burma to India; we are going to gradually grow this business?.
Another shipment made by Tata Africa Holdings to India had pulses from Tanzania.
Depending on how things go for the company in the new venture, acquiring farmlands on lease, etc, would be the ?next step?, he said.
Muthuraman, who is also vice-chairman, Tata Steel, said export of spices from India was also being explored by the company.
Parent Tata International, which saw a turnover of around R6,000 crore in 2012-13, is according to the chairman expected to reach a turnover of around R11,000 crore in the current fiscal, which ends in less than a month?s time.
Talking about the company?s first mining acquisitions made a couple of years ago by way of a chrome mine in Madagascar and a coal mine in Mozambique, Muthuraman said while the coal mine project in Mozambique was given up after being assessed as ?unviable?, Tata Africa Holdings was currently busy assessing the quantum of chrome ore deposits in Madagascar.